AND OTHER WATER WAVES 41 



which it is screened by the Philippine Archipelago 

 and other islands. The uninterrupted expanses of 

 water are greater than in the Western Mediterranean. 

 The following observations were made by the late 

 Lieutenant Paris, of the French Navy, whose careful 

 methods of work will be described later. Off Cape 

 Varella, in a violent storm from the north-east 

 which lasted several days, the highest wave was 

 21.3 feet and the average wave-length 328 feet. 

 The sea -room to windward was about 750 statute 

 or 650 geographical miles. Thus the difference 

 in the sizes of waves in great lakes and in the 

 much larger semi -enclosed seas respectively is less 

 than we should have expected from the observed 

 difference between their size in the smaller and 

 in the larger lakes. We find, however, a great 

 increase when we go from the semi -enclosed seas 

 to the open oceans. 1 



1 In the Caribbean Sea also, where I have made five voyages, 

 the waves are not quite like those of the open ocean. Between 

 Colon and Kingston they have a clear run of more than 500 

 nautical miles in the direction of the prevailing NE. wind, which 

 blows strongly. The waves, which I have seen attain a height 

 of above 20 feet during ordinary strong Trade winds, remind 

 one more of those of the Mediterranean than of the Atlantic, 

 and there is an absence of the long swell accompanying the 

 rough sea which is characteristic of the open ocean. 



